History of Ceramics in Tuscany

Dante Milani and the “Terrecotte di Montopoli”

The work of Dante Milani, a native of Arezzo, began on his homecoming from the First World War (1919), when he took on the running of a kiln for making bricks and tiles in Monopoli.
Here, he gradually extended his production to garden terracotta, oil storage jars and basins for washing. The next step was the production of kitchen utensils, but these did not have the success he expected, so Milani thought of dismantling the kiln.
Fortunately Silvio Bicchi, a local painter, ex pupil of Fattori, intervened, convincing Dante Milani to turn his production to artistic terracotta. Bicchi helped start the business which by 1927 was already well established.
The “Terrecotte di Montopoli” were distinguished by an archaic looking decoration, emphasized by a particular “antiqued” patina, a veritable trade secret of this workshop, perfected by Milani after repeated attempts.
Bicchi was succeeded as artistic manager by Guido Milani, Dante’s brother and teacher of decorative drawing at the University of Padua.

1929 to 1930 were the most successful years, thanks also to the permanent exhibitions which Dante Milani opened in Europe, in America and even in India, showing his own reproduction of urns and plates in Pompeian, Egyptian and Renaissance styles.
Guido Milani can be credited with having trained a generation of excellent craftsmen, not only potters who worked on the wheel and decorators, but also carpenters and blacksmiths who produced furniture and chandeliers in Renaissance style and the terracotta tiles of Montopoli which complemented this furnishing.